Those who aren’t yet fans of hammocking, or the art of hanging a hammock in an outdoor area to enjoy the scenery or even sleep overnight, may want to give it a second thought. Earlier this week, a hammock saved a woman’s life on the North Shore of Oahu when a rogue wave washed onto her lanai, dragging her furniture, and almost the woman herself, out to sea.
The woman was staying in the Ke Iki Beach Bungalows, between Log Cabins and Shark’s Cove. According to property manager Greg Gerstenberger, the woman was lying in the hammock just outside of a rock wall. This proved to be a little too close to the ocean, as one particularly large wave almost dragged her out to sea. She clung to her hammock for dear life and, even with water flooding the inside of her unit, she was able to stay aground.
“I dropped everything, and I ran up here,” he said. “I asked her what happened, and she said she was in the hammock during the whole wave coming in.”
It may, then, come as no surprise that tourist deaths related to drowning in Hawaii are higher than average this year. Hawai’i’s visitor drowning rate is 13 times the national average and 10 times the rate of Hawaii residents, and Hawaii had the second highest resident drowning fatality rate among all 50 states from 2013 to 2017, behind only Alaska. And perhaps most interestingly, drowning is the only injury cause where non-residents make up the majority of victims. This may indicate that visitors need to spend a lot more time studying the ocean before getting in, and pay special attention to what call the lifeguards make on ocean conditions.
Gerstenberger reported that he had not seen waves make it past the rock wall since 2003, two decades ago. But, even though big waves mean property damage for those closest to the shoreline, silver linings come with extra large swells: The Eddie went. Correlation or causation? You can be the judge. Only one thing is for sure: when the next waiting period begins, if you’re living on the North Shore, you’d better hold on to your hammocks.
